smp
Veteran Member
Hello all,
I am Stephen Pereira, a new member here. In real life, I am an engineer by training, and now a manager of engineers. Long ago, I was one of two partners who opened the first computer store in New Hampshire, Microcomputers, Inc. So, as both an engineer and also a personal computer enthusiast, I have a lengthy history with all sorts of personal computers, starting from the original 8080 based kits.
After all these years, I was considering resurrecting an old Apple IIc Plus and external 5.25" floppy drive that I had picked up along the way many years ago. Here is my success story:
Starting with no system or software disks, I perused the forum postings at www.Apple2online.com (I hadn't discovered this forum yet) and came to the conclusion that ADTPro is the best software to use to start from scratch. That was supported by another user there, who answered one of my early questions. The documentation on the ADTPro web site was very thorough, too. Since I had to purchase a serial null modem cable, I went over to www.Retrofloppy.com (also recommended) and purchased one, along with the ADTPro disk for the Apple IIc Plus side. This was probably the best money spent on this project ($20 for the cable and $7.95 for the disk, plus a few more dollars for shipping), because it got me off on a sure footing.
I used a Dell Mini netbook with a USB-to-serial converter and downloaded the server side of ADTPro into that. This setup works like a charm. The Apple IIc Plus booted the ADTPro disk and all I had to do was to select the serial I/O option on both the Apple and the server sides and I was connected.
Using this setup, it was a snap to download some system files and application files into the Dell Mini and then transfer them over to the Apple, which wrote them directly onto 5.25" floppy disks. The main thing is to watch for files that have the .DSK extension. These are files that are ready to go with this process. There are also files out there that have other extensions, too. I'll get to more of that in a minute.
Using the setup I described above, I have successfully set myself up with ProDOS, System Utilities, a couple of terminal programs, and a disk analyzer that told me that my 5.25" floppy seems to be working fine.
After all this, I realized that there are other files out there that have other extensions which are not disk images, they are either single files or a group of files bundled together. Some file extensions seem to be specific to emulation environments, not for direct use on a physical Apple computer. The ADTPro setup is looking for entire disk images, and does not properly handle these other types of files. I figured out that files with the extension .SHK or SDK are files that have been processed by the ShrinkIt application (I'm not exactly Sherlock Holmes, but it did take a little effort on my part). I was able to get the ShrinkIt application by using my ADTPro setup, so next was to get the .SHK or SDK files into the Apple.
I figured that some sort of terminal program that had file transfer capability should do the trick. I have the Hyper-Terminal application on the Dell Mini, so half the situation was already solved. I first acquired the Apple Access II application. For whatever reason, I am attracted to Apple applications. Once I got that up and running, however, I saw that while Access II can perform file transfer, it wants to use the Christiansen protocol (one that I had not heard of) and Hyper-Terminal wants to use Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, Kermit, etc. Not Christiansen. Sigh.
I did some more skulking around on the Internet to find potential terminal programs for Apple II that were also available for download in the .DSK form. I came up with an application called ZLink, also available on Apple2online.com. Both ZLink and Hyper-Terminal are easy to set up and the file transfer operation is also easy to set up, especially since my serial connection between the Dell Mini and the Apple IIc Plus was already proven out with ADTPro. I now have been able to transfer .SHK and .SDK files onto Apple IIc 5.25' and 3.5' disks, and use the ShrinkIt application to restore them.
Whew! quite a good bit of work. I am very happy to say that I have been able to successfully get my old Apple IIc Plus up and running.
smp
I am Stephen Pereira, a new member here. In real life, I am an engineer by training, and now a manager of engineers. Long ago, I was one of two partners who opened the first computer store in New Hampshire, Microcomputers, Inc. So, as both an engineer and also a personal computer enthusiast, I have a lengthy history with all sorts of personal computers, starting from the original 8080 based kits.
After all these years, I was considering resurrecting an old Apple IIc Plus and external 5.25" floppy drive that I had picked up along the way many years ago. Here is my success story:
Starting with no system or software disks, I perused the forum postings at www.Apple2online.com (I hadn't discovered this forum yet) and came to the conclusion that ADTPro is the best software to use to start from scratch. That was supported by another user there, who answered one of my early questions. The documentation on the ADTPro web site was very thorough, too. Since I had to purchase a serial null modem cable, I went over to www.Retrofloppy.com (also recommended) and purchased one, along with the ADTPro disk for the Apple IIc Plus side. This was probably the best money spent on this project ($20 for the cable and $7.95 for the disk, plus a few more dollars for shipping), because it got me off on a sure footing.
I used a Dell Mini netbook with a USB-to-serial converter and downloaded the server side of ADTPro into that. This setup works like a charm. The Apple IIc Plus booted the ADTPro disk and all I had to do was to select the serial I/O option on both the Apple and the server sides and I was connected.
Using this setup, it was a snap to download some system files and application files into the Dell Mini and then transfer them over to the Apple, which wrote them directly onto 5.25" floppy disks. The main thing is to watch for files that have the .DSK extension. These are files that are ready to go with this process. There are also files out there that have other extensions, too. I'll get to more of that in a minute.
Using the setup I described above, I have successfully set myself up with ProDOS, System Utilities, a couple of terminal programs, and a disk analyzer that told me that my 5.25" floppy seems to be working fine.
After all this, I realized that there are other files out there that have other extensions which are not disk images, they are either single files or a group of files bundled together. Some file extensions seem to be specific to emulation environments, not for direct use on a physical Apple computer. The ADTPro setup is looking for entire disk images, and does not properly handle these other types of files. I figured out that files with the extension .SHK or SDK are files that have been processed by the ShrinkIt application (I'm not exactly Sherlock Holmes, but it did take a little effort on my part). I was able to get the ShrinkIt application by using my ADTPro setup, so next was to get the .SHK or SDK files into the Apple.
I figured that some sort of terminal program that had file transfer capability should do the trick. I have the Hyper-Terminal application on the Dell Mini, so half the situation was already solved. I first acquired the Apple Access II application. For whatever reason, I am attracted to Apple applications. Once I got that up and running, however, I saw that while Access II can perform file transfer, it wants to use the Christiansen protocol (one that I had not heard of) and Hyper-Terminal wants to use Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, Kermit, etc. Not Christiansen. Sigh.
I did some more skulking around on the Internet to find potential terminal programs for Apple II that were also available for download in the .DSK form. I came up with an application called ZLink, also available on Apple2online.com. Both ZLink and Hyper-Terminal are easy to set up and the file transfer operation is also easy to set up, especially since my serial connection between the Dell Mini and the Apple IIc Plus was already proven out with ADTPro. I now have been able to transfer .SHK and .SDK files onto Apple IIc 5.25' and 3.5' disks, and use the ShrinkIt application to restore them.
Whew! quite a good bit of work. I am very happy to say that I have been able to successfully get my old Apple IIc Plus up and running.
smp
